LEADER 04483nam 2200781 a 450 001 9910818792603321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a1-282-15868-6 010 $a9786612158681 010 $a1-4008-2765-5 024 7 $a10.1515/9781400827657 035 $a(CKB)1000000000788544 035 $a(EBL)457891 035 $a(OCoLC)436084620 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000265718 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11226952 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000265718 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10299709 035 $a(PQKB)10779285 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000490536 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11929934 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000490536 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10484790 035 $a(PQKB)11077378 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse36312 035 $a(DE-B1597)446386 035 $a(OCoLC)979745017 035 $a(DE-B1597)9781400827657 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL457891 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10312485 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL215868 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC457891 035 $a(EXLCZ)991000000000788544 100 $a20060816d2007 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur|n|---||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aUpward mobility and the common good $etoward a literary history of the welfare state /$fBruce Robbins 205 $aCourse Book 210 $aPrinceton, N.J. $cPrinceton University Press$dc2007 215 $a1 online resource (338 p.) 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 $a0-691-14663-2 311 $a0-691-04987-4 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [245]-287) and index. 327 $t Frontmatter -- $tContents -- $tPREFACE. Someone Else'S Life -- $tIntroduction. The Fairy Godmother -- $tChapter One. Erotic Patronage: Rousseau, Constant, Balzac, Stendhal -- $tChapter Two. How to be a Benefactor Without Any Money -- $tChapter Three. "It'S Not Your Fault": Therapy and Irresponsibility -- $tChapter Four. A Portrait of the Artist as a Rentier -- $tChapter Five. The Health Visitor -- $tChapter Six. On the Persistence of Anger in the Institutions of Caring -- $tConclusion. The Luck of Birth and the International Division of Labor -- $tNotes -- $tIndex 330 $aWe think we know what upward mobility stories are about--virtuous striving justly rewarded, or unprincipled social climbing regrettably unpunished. Either way, these stories seem obviously concerned with the self-making of self-reliant individuals rather than with any collective interest. In Upward Mobility and the Common Good, Bruce Robbins completely overturns these assumptions to expose a hidden tradition of erotic social interdependence at the heart of the literary canon. Reinterpreting novels by figures such as Balzac, Stendhal, Charlotte Brontė, Dickens, Dreiser, Wells, Doctorow, and Ishiguro, along with a number of films, Robbins shows how deeply the material and erotic desires of upwardly mobile characters are intertwined with the aid they receive from some sort of benefactor or mentor. In his view, Hannibal Lecter of The Silence of the Lambs becomes a key figure of social mobility in our time. Robbins argues that passionate and ambiguous relationships (like that between Lecter and Clarice Starling) carry the upward mobility story far from anyone's simple self-interest, whether the protagonist's or the mentor's. Robbins concludes that upward mobility stories have paradoxically helped American and European society make the transition from an ethic of individual responsibility to one of collective accountability, a shift that made the welfare state possible, but that also helps account for society's fascination with cases of sexual abuse and harassment by figures of authority. 606 $aSex in literature 606 $aMentoring in literature 606 $aWelfare state in literature 606 $aFiction$y20th century$xHistory and criticism 606 $aFiction$y19th century$xHistory and criticism 615 0$aSex in literature. 615 0$aMentoring in literature. 615 0$aWelfare state in literature. 615 0$aFiction$xHistory and criticism. 615 0$aFiction$xHistory and criticism. 676 $a809/.93355 700 $aRobbins$b Bruce$0457393 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910818792603321 996 $aUpward mobility and the common good$94088191 997 $aUNINA